Abner V. McCall, 80, Educator Who Led in Expansion of Baylor

By WOLFGANG SAXON

Published: June 13, 1995

Abner Vernon McCall, who was president and later chancellor of Baylor University for 24 years, died on Sunday at his home in Waco, Tex. He was 80.

The cause was a heart attack, said a spokeswoman for Baylor, the nation's largest Baptist university. Mr. McCall had celebrated his 80th birthday on the university's campus in Waco on Saturday.

Mr. McCall was president of Baylor for 20 years, from 1961 to 1981, and then became chancellor. He retired in 1985 as president emeritus.

Baylor is owned and operated by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, of which Mr. McCall was a past president. The university flourished under his stewardship. The campus grew tenfold, to more than 400 acres, and enrollment nearly doubled, to more than 10,000. Last year the enrollment exceeded 12,000.

He also promoted programs to increase Baylor's endowment, which now exceeds $325 million.

As president of Baylor, he strictly upheld a university code that forbids dancing, card playing and alcoholic beverages. He declared Baylor off limits to Playboy magazine in 1980, threatening to expel any woman who posed as a Baylor student. His stance led to a revolt among editors of the campus paper, The Baylor Lariat, some of whom were ousted.

Mr. McCall was born in Perrin, Tex., graduated from Baylor and Baylor School of Law, and started teaching law at Baylor in 1938.

In World War II he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a special agent assigned to national security work. He returned to Baylor after the war, and in 1948 was named dean of the law school.

Mr. McCall is survived by his wife of 25 years, Mary Russell McCall; three daughters, Anne Chroman of Pasadena, Calif., Bette G. Martin of Dallas and Kathleen Sigtenhorst of Pomona, Calif.; a son, Richard V., of Waco; two stepdaughters, Linda Letbetter of Houston and Nancy Chapman of Dallas, and nine grandchildren. His first wife, Frances Bortle McCall, died in 1969.